ba43056

No it wasn't. I'm just tired of Miller Kopp.

I think Wisconsin is a very solid team with overachieving bigs, a top tier #1 option and solid perimeter role players. They are going to have one out of 4 games that they are very beatable and I'm not sure its a match-up thing as much as its a team mentality thing. On occasion they just don't show up. We have had our shot and I believe Rutgers just caught that 1 outta 4 moment. Wisconsin won't fade or fall apart. I'm going to be in the minority when I say this but I'm not expecting our coaching to have that magic turnaround adjustment. We won't look back at this part of the season and see 'the thing' that CMW did that fixed our situation. Rob will be back at some point soon I hope and give us a PG off the bench and our best line-up. I'd like to see Galloway, Bates, XJ, Race and Trayce with a short bench of a healthy Rob, Kopp and Geronimo and see if we can't .500 the rest of the way and steal 2 games out of the conference tourney. That would get us firmly in the big dance and win a game and call that a successful 1st year for CMW. If coming back this year to expand his game to be a first rounder, he might wanna come back again.

They are counted on to be contributors to victories. In the roles they've had over the course of the season they have more often than not been non-factors offensively. Neither, especially Kopp are particular stellar on the defensive side of the ball either.

Bright Side: Thompson has morphed into Daryl Thomas and I look forward to having him back next year. He's the best all-around defender on the team and a rugged Big Ten interior player. Bates will be what we expected next year and along with XJ, Galloway, Race and year two of CMW be something to look forward to. Geronimo, Shifino and Bates in spots should give us a respectable bench. WE WILL NEED A PORTAL RIM PROTECTOR.......... Not so bright: Stewart was someone that I thought would be potentially a number two option for us. He's certainly not the guy I thought he would be and along with Kopp been very disappointing. We'll need Rob back very soon and even if he looks just half the player he was against Purdue 20 wins and at least another one if not two in the conference tourney may be hard to get. The officiating was way too prominent in this game. Not the reason we lost but for a team that wins on the defensive side of the ball it certainly did make establishing momentum very hard.

I never saw him in person. But I did like what I saw on video. A physical aggressive big in the Big Ten is always going to be something we need. He looked to be banger that would be good on the offensive glass.

The starting five should mean something. It should be the most effective 5 guys you can put on the floor. It may not be your best 5 players. The starting five should be an obtainable reward for impacting the previous game and impacting practice. Galloway has been all of that since coming back from his injury. The most productive five of the first half should be the group you want to start the second half with. This is the only area I've been disappointed in with CMW. He's gotten away from the NBA style line shift substitutions which was good. I've yet to see him strategically counter something offensively that lead us to a win. He has however gotten the defense to give an appearance of personal ownership. This suspension was a great thing for us.

The Canadian HS hoops scene is something to take notice of and its getting every year. I hope we can get some traction north of the border.

Its the miracle we needed to shake up that starting line-up. The only issue I've had with CMW. What was it going to take to make a f'n line-up change. It will be unsettling to see us return back to the same 5 guys.

I've said this since his first game back from injury. If Kopp an/or Stewart were lockdown defenders then you could live with them being HUGE disappointments offensively. Galloway is a #3 option on offense with the type of intangibles winning teams need. My biggest concern and really only concern that I've had with CMW is his line-up management. Enough was enough with that starting group 5 games ago. This suspension may be the reboot we needed. If somehow both Stewart and Kopp are starting ahead of Galloway next game then its an issue.

I believe Kopp, Stewart and Rob are in their last year of college basketball. I don't them personally so I don't know if they will pursue overseas options or not. So with that being said we have the room for Banks, Gunn and Schifino. TJD will enter the draft and perhaps with CMW as an advocate get drafted somewhere in the 50's, but honestly he has nothing new to his offensive game that leads me to believe that he's any more prepared now than he last year. None-the-less he will move on. Lander would be well served to consider a fresh start elsewhere, I personally think he will move on. Duncomb wouldn't come as a surprise if he did as well but I don't think its likely. Race I believe comes back with Durr and Geronimo. So the safe bet is 5 being gone. I do disagree with you about one thing. I think Bates will get it together. I think we'll see something tonight.

The Illinois loss was THE LOSS wasn't it? Its been an enjoyable year and we'll still be in the dance but we are a team that gets soundly defeated at home by the number 18 team in the country. THE LOSS that gives us our identity. The truth serum, the litmus test. Underwood didn't beat Woodson. Their best player was able to impose his will on ours then the caveats that come from that were daggers. In an open gym pick-up setting they would've destroyed us. Right now we could be 8-4 behind three teams tied at 9-3 with wins against 2 of them. We would be ranked in the top 20. The narrative nationally would be different and we would be talking about how we could still win the conference. Instead we are hoping not to fall apart or limp into the conference tournament. It was a huge loss. Can we get Syracuse Kopp tonight?

I think Race will come back to be the man inside. Geronimo would make a perfect sidekick for Race. A bit undersized but it looks like we'll be able to add a couple of more players from the portal.

I agree. He made us look better without TJD on the court. His name reminds me to be extra careful handling hot beverages in my car.

When we have a couple of years to build a foundation and get those recruiting connections established I think we'll be a consistent top 10 team. This year we have a lot to be happy about. I thought XJ played a tremendous game and think he's putting it together. Bates showed some promise and could end the season strong. 10 years ago Cockburn would be a top 3 pick in the draft.

Are we ruling out Race retuning?

Do you have a comparison?

I never said JG as earned a starting position, my comparison was more him being an elite athlete but if you wanna dig into recent games he has been more productive than Kopp. Stewart and especially Kopp have played their ways out of the starting unit multiple times, if the starting unit is to be considered your more productive group. Kopp's a one trick pony that has to drop 15+ to offset his liability on the defensive end. Stewart can do a couple of other things out there and as long as Kopp is on the floor his defensive limitations aren't as obvious. I'm sure that CMW knows more about roster management especially his own than I do, but his style so far has been far more Crean than Knight.

This is the point in the conference calendar that gaining ground back after a loss becomes very difficult. Being 8-4 with another upper level victory albeit at home would put us in the top 25 and in that 6 seed conversation. It would require a meltdown after that to keep us out of the dance. So I think this is our biggest game of the year.

That's a pretty mature looking high school frosh.

Could you a possible Josh McRoberts level/type of player with this young man? Or More of a Brian Evans type?

I was on the old ESPN board when we hired TC and there was a really well written and fair couple of paragraphs offered up to us from a Marquette board member and every bit of it came true. So he's a canned product that no matter where he goes you'll get what he does well and bad like a sequel to Groundhogs Day. Some of his issues were personality and not willing to take ownership of team shortcomings, along with the points you made. However, there was only the one year after Cody that we didn't have a quality big and had Fischer not bailed we would always have had great continuity there. He landed 2 St. Louis players that were major contributors which has never been done at IU and he did well against the Syracuse zone. Back to Carr: I can see him being like Troy Williams. A straight line force of nature that will knock down the occasional 3 and make flashy defensive plays. I'm not sure players like that would accept the "fixed starting line-up" permanent bench roll like JG has. I hope that facet of CMW's coaching is going to be a one-off this year. I've accepted the idea that maybe over 40 minutes the idea that maybe Kopp or Stewart aren't wired to come off the bench and Galloway and JG are.....but if I was Carr I would want to know that the minute I arrived on campus all 5 positions were being competed for and that competition was on-going for the entire time I was a Hoosier.

I've seen a handful of elite athletes come through IU from Andre Harris, Steve Hart, Greg Graham, VO, Troy Williams, and Geronimo. I'm not sure if Greg Graham was in the that category but if he wasn't he was close and it translated day one to the defensive end. Of those names VO and Graham were the only ones that developed offensively to a level on par with their athleticism. Jury is still out on JG. Would we be happy with Carr if he was indeed Troy Williams? He wasn't a bad defensive player but not someone that necessarily took pride in defense enough to be a stopper. Was Troy Williams someone that could've played a lot of minutes for CMW? I think Carr has a lot of TW about him at first glance. Myself,,,I hope we get him because you can't teach what he has.

Having lived in Philly, I'm not sure how they get anyone not a native of Philly. Its the single worst place I've ever been on this planet and I've been shot at in 3 countries. Living in Detroit felt like Carmel compared to Philly. Baylor...tough to beat success and if he's tired of freezing his ass off in the winter, they could be the front runner. However, I like our chances here. Fife is a world class recruiter and he's about to get rolling.

I hope that every young gifted athletic player would take the Greg Graham approach to development. Find your minutes first by being an elite defender. Athleticism doesn't immediately translate to buckets but it can on the defensive end get you the minutes that can fast track your confidence enough to put it together faster.

Our money line-up of Rob, XJ, Galloway, Trace and Race match-up great against these guys. Kopp and Stewart will be need to be red hot to justify being on the floor against them.